


Vos, the dead city

by Aksalin



Series: Vos [2]
Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 14:51:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15415389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aksalin/pseuds/Aksalin
Summary: A sequel to "Vos, city of freedom". Pre-canon, the beginning of the Great War, many original characters.I'm translating my own text from russian.





	1. 1.1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Вос, город мертвых](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/400230) by Aksalin. 



The long tips of Firefly’s wings were quivering as he was walking from wall to wall, his lenses fixed on Electro, who bent over the console. He uncovered his medpanel to the limit, as were additional rows of sockets on his shoulders, and the upper part of his grey frame was all wrapped up in bundles of wires.

— I must get on the flagship, — Firefly said, stopped in front of Soundwave.

Skyjack, standing next to the video surveillance screen, jerked forward — but he said nothing aloud. Lazerbeak caught a short exchange of encrypted data, their communication channel could easily be hacked… but it hardly was Soundwave’s business.

— The third southern generator is damaged, — Electro said by his mechanical, emotionless voice. — One more hit — and the force dome won’t hold.

— So, shift the points of support to whole generators, you idiot! — Skyjack’s electromagnetic field scalded Soundwave’s sensors so that he switched off their sensibility, just in case. He didn’t want to show his own fear.

— Electro will do it when the time comes, — waves of peace and tranquility were emanating from Firefly, giving an irrational certainty that everything would be all right. — And Soundwave will help him after he opens the portal for me. Right, Soundwave?

The dark brown silhouette disappeared in the green haze, and after two nanokliks the flickering dome skipped first plasma discharges. The scarlet window of one of the towers on the screen melted, and the red-hot armored plastic slid down, mixing with the yellow of the next level. Soundwave hurried to the server, pulling the manipulators and adjusting to the connection, and saw that Skyjack transformed in the doorway.

Serenity instilled by the telepath reluctantly left Soundwave’s spark, giving way to anxiety, and the droning Electro’s frame at arm's length only increased discomfort. Of course, jets would better report the attack earlier, much earlier — and Soundwave didn’t know for sure whether the air commander left Megatron without informing anyone — but how could anyone help in Kaon? Some of decepticons’ ships were there, some on the satellite, floating now on the other side of the planet, and none of them had time to get here… But Firefly understood nothing about the navigation of ship!

The force dome shone over the city again, and Soundwave used the streams of natural energy to support the dome, depriving the lighting some of the towers near the rocks. Electro gave Soundwave control over the southern half of the city, where small ships were continuously firing. Vos’ air defense — missile systems with remote control hidden in the cracks — hadn’t been used for hundreds of vorns, perhaps had never been used. Soundwave hadn’t considered necessary to delve into the history of the city, but he knew the technical features of the local defensive structures perfectly well. Dozens of cameras on the towers were watching the sky, the sensors of the homing systems scanned it in all possible ranges, determining the goals. All these data streams: optical, radio, infrared, — were coming directly to Soundwave, and it was enough give a mental order of sending missiles. It seemed completely easy… but the ships were moving in the closest proximity to the force dome, which was flickering a few meters above the roofs of the tallest towers, and countless combat triads were flying around and shooting across the plating. He couldn’t allow the missiles to pursue the targets independently.

Apex was swaying dangerously somewhere above the gates, above the rocks, as if losing and regaining control, and the low rumble of antigravs was piercing the thin walls and ceilings of all the towers in the city, giving off the unpleasant vibration. The first launch of the missiles knocked down two ships of four, and their elongated frames flew down, disintegrating into instantly blackening debris. Passing through the fully activated plasma layers and the crossed laser beams, they seemed to dissolve in the air. Soundwave was trying to catch the fourth, green-red ship. Maybe Electro would have coped with this task. If the second generator of the force dome didn’t explode. If the other ship didn’t crash into the tower and stuck on the upper levels, and Soundwave didn’t have to release an additional rocket to neutralize the missile, which had been following this ship.

When Soundwave noticed that the autobots’ flagship was slowly, terribly slowly falling over the city, picking up the nose, Firefly's life signal was still caught by the scanner — along with the four soldiers on the ship — but the smooth rocking of the ship which was seen from below meant a mad shaking inside it, and with all the desire it was impossible to open the portal to the object, constantly moving on unpredictable trajectories. Apex hit the mountainside, and the noise knocked out Soundwave’s audiosensors. By the cameras that became the continuation of his optosensors, he saw how the ship was slipping down. Several towers were touched by the tail part, and fragments splashed from their tops in all directions, instantly replaced by a swirling cloud of dust. 

The green-red ship was still circling over the city, leaving a black trail by the smoking left engine, and Soundwave switched all his resources to its destruction, canceling the calculation of coordinates for the teleport. Autobots’ crew was requesting its own ground bridge, apparently, the damage was stronger than it seemed at first glance. To intercept autobots’ communication channel was undoubtedly a reasonable solution, because other ships could fly through the portal… but Soundwave enjoyed watching them die more than he had expected.


	2. 1.2

He landed directly over the command center of Apex and stepped cautiously over the fragments of the rock crumbling beneath his feet. Its pilothouse was placed standard, in the bow, and the towers suffered from the more massive tail, so rescuers, dismantling the rubble, didn’t see Soundwave. Lazerbeak was helping him to inspect the ship, searching for the cracks and holes. Perhaps, Apex could lift into space after the repair, although Soundwave noted the increased level of radiation in the wind from the side where the reactor had been damaged. 

He came closer to rocket batteries, each of them could destroy the mountain behind — if, of course, to get into the trigger mechanism and to manage the activating. Like this stupid jet, who hadn’t found another place for teleportation!

Soundwave caught jet’s slender dark purple frame with the manipulators and managed to fling him aside before the green light of his portal went out. Jet landed on the stones, which had filled in the same dark purple plating of the ship, and they jumped down, banging on its metal.

«It’s a miracle that you hadn’t shot the residential tower», — fortunately, the smooth message glyphs masked Soundwave’s irritation perfectly.

— I'm terribly sorry that I prevented you! — jet rose to his knees by an elusive quick movement, intercepted both manipulators at their very ends, crossing them so that the discharge would go into the air. — But I wanted to express my admiration to you so much! All that you had done to be born in Vos and keep the knowledge of the past life was amazing! And the way you rebuilt your frame… you're excellent, you're just a living legend, and I don’t even know how to express my admiration…

Shining by his diamond-shaped lenses, the unfamiliar jet continued to eulogize Soundwave, and he bit the quivering angle of his mouth perplexedly. He really wanted to back away, but his manipulators were already stretched almost to the limit. The dark purple jet didn’t squeeze them, he even kept his claws off, so as not to accidentally scratch them, and his words sounded sincere… but Soundwave was too accustomed to feel himself as a shadow behind Megatron's shoulder, invisible and silent. Imperceptible. The fact, that thousands of lenses were watching Soundwave in the overpopulated Vos, strangely flew out of his short-turn memory.

— Excuse my trine-mate, brother Soundwave, — another jet, absolutely identical to the first in everything except the color of the armor, landed on Apex's broad nose gracefully and bent in a ritual bow, pressing his hands to his spark. — He's not always like that. My name is Thundercracker, and I also admire your abilities and achievements. And this is Skywarp, my trine-mate and the only spark-mate, and he came to ask you for help.

Skywarp shut up finally and was staring at Soundwave with a completely sparkling’s expression of the faceplate. He obviously wasn’t going to explain the problem that had brought him here. Apex flew into one of the fissures at the edge of the city, and the rear tail section, which damaged several towers, protruded vertically upwards by the huge left stabilizer, blocking the view on the jets, raking fragments. But the surviving buildings towered above the crash site, and it seemed that there were same scarlet and eagerly curious lenses.

— His teleport fails, — the dark blue Thundercracker spoke with a distinct sigh of ventilation, lowering his voice. — The output point is randomly shifted by several meters.

Yes, Soundwave caught in the midst of these endless dithyrambs that Skywarp had improved himself in the desire to become at least something like him. But how could he help?

«I don’t understand enough about this issue. You should contact the doctors or the administration», — he wrote to both.

— They’ll exclude us from the lists of combat triads, — Skywarp said plaintively, almost pressing the manipulators to his chestplate. — Please, Soundwave, you are our last hope!

«Is it better to risk not only your spark, but also sparks of your brothers?» — he strained his servo, pulling his manipulators out of Skywarp’s hot grip, and headed toward the tail part — past an endless row of ship cannons, whose long muzzles were frozen at different angles.

Lazerbeak already had time to inspect most of Apex and didn’t find a single hole that could pass for the passage. The docking compartments were fragmented and crushed by a multiton mass of metal and concrete fragments of the towers. Probably the automatic had worked incorrectly, or someone from the crew had done it — but the huge caterpillar cart of the chassis half left under the left side, crocked the whole hull of the ship.

— And what are you looking for? — Skywarp jumped out of his portal suddenly, blocking the way, and Soundwave had to stop. — Can we help you?

«No. I hoped to get into the control room, but I didn’t find any suitable holes», — he replied politely after a brief reflection.

— But you can teleport, why not?

Another funnel opened almost underfoot, and Soundwave staggered back reflexively, not having time to formulate a warning. Thundercracker was hurriedly clattering behind his back, stumbling on small stones, and they were rolling over the plating and giving an uneven vibration in the servo. 

— I was just there! — blurted out Skywarp joyfully, materializing on the square casing of one of the anti-gravity engines. — And what do you need to do there, Soundwave?

— Stop trying my patience! — he barked by Megatron’s voice and added by internal communication: «When they had fallen, Firefly and four autobots died immediately. It’s an unjustified risk even with a serviceable teleport — to go inside the damaged ship blindly».

— But it was all right! Look, it's all right there!

Soundwave unpacked the data and viewed the record from optosensors, dark and little informative. Well, it was really possible to pass along this corridor, and he could learn the probability of collapse of overlappings on the spot.

— It’s too short, yes? I'll take one another, wait a bit!

Soundwave barely managed to grab the dark purple leg by the manipulator — and dragged the hyperactive jet against the stones. It seemed that only his armor was scratched.

«Coordinates. And don’t try to go there yourself».

— But it's impossible to teleport into the wall… — Skywarp snapped. — Well, and if we go through your portal?

«I'm not going to endanger sparklings», — in fact, he had no desire to bother with them.

— I’m nine hundred and twenty quartexes old, and Thunder is already a thousand and a hundred and sixty-two! We aren’t sparklings! And we’ll still get there, even if you’re against — suddenly you’ll be crashed there, should someone save you?!

A strange sound came out from Soundwave’s dynamics — something in between a crackling growl and a choked snort. Well, it wasn’t so difficult to organize an illegal medical examination for one stubborn jet…


	3. 1.3

To search the ship, accompanied by two jets — one all the time was asking questions or beginning to tell something, distracting in the middle of the phrase, the second pulled him back occasionally, but was looking around with the same curiosity, — was surprisingly comfortable. Soundwave already had time to forget what it was like — to communicate with friendly mecha, who were reacting to laconic and emotionless messages calmly. Sometimes it occurred to him that Megatron was also irritated by this way of talking. However, all made Megatron angry last time, and it was hardly rational to blame himself…

— Can you introduce me to that doctor, please? I don’t want to involve One-Winged. He doesn’t like me… somehow, I'm scared, do you understand me?

«Reason?» — while Lazerbeak was hacking the protection of the next door, Soundwave could give an attention to his companions.

Not that he was interested in the answer, but politeness prescribed at least occasionally insert relevant replicas. It was unlikely that the jets liked to wander in the dark, which was scattered only by the light of the lenses, and to hear their own voices only. Apex's casing protected from all the sounds from outside, and it made a feeling of pre-war times for Soundwave. Judging by the endless chatter, Skywarp didn’t share his feelings. 

— Once I had teleported directly to his pulpit. Now I will find his faceplate, it should be seen… — a compressed video file downloaded for a share of the nanoklik, instantly unpacking, and Soundwave looked at the manipulators, identical to his own. — No, then I hadn’t failed, I had just thought it would be fun, and it had been so, but One-winged can’t stand me since that case, and he had passed me in the exam only from the fifth time, and he had said that I have no abilities to his subject… I do know better what the ability I have, right?

— If you want to develop these abilities, you’ll certainly succeed, — the light of the lenses was distorting the faceplates, but it was clear by the voice that Thundercracker was smiling. 

«I doubt that One-winged remembers it. There are many teleporters in Vos. But I’ll clarify next cycles», — if nothing extraordinary happened, it would be possible to do in several groons. In any case, Soundwave was going to visit One-winged, who had been teasing with scraps of schemes and assembling stages for long. Soon Lazerbeak would have a partner.

The doors leading to the wheelhouse parted finally, and it became clear how Firefly had died. It had been enough for the autobots just to hit harder against any surface when the ship had fallen — but it wasn’t easy to kill Vos’ jet. Well, everyone here was flattened by a huge console that had collapsed from its place. It had hit Firefly’s helmet by the sharp angle formed by the rupture, and Soundwave squeezed his teeth, forcing himself to look at the tiny broken circuits that were glistening in the dark spot of the decaying biotissue. Energon had already ceased to luminesce. Fleetingly surprised at how telepathic waves affect perception and how fragile and unremarkable Firefly seemed without them, Soundwave handed his manipulator to the crushed head. The clamps were quivering, barely touching the warm and wet. 

— What are you doing? — Skywarp asked unusually seriously, and Soundwave turned the mask to him.

«In Kaon — and in the space fleet — it was customary to close lenses of dead mecha», — it was stupid to clarify that now it was impossible. The manipulator frozen above the crashed brain module looked suspicious. The absurd, stupid death had knocked Soundwave out of habitual indifference, and he forgot about the jets following him.

Files that theoretically had a chance to survive in this mash, were pulling his clamps down like a powerful magnet, but even if he came back later, without unnecessary witnesses, how could he quietly eject Firefly’s hard drives or connect to them without leaving traces? Skyjack would probably blame me for Firefly’s death, thought Soundwave. Last thing he needed was to defile the dead frame and to offend Vos and his customs.

— We’re doing differently, — Skywarp sat down beside the lifeless wing, risking to bring down the huge console panel, and Soundwave’s manipulator jerked. — We take a piece of plating as a souvenir, and then we throw it into the smelting pit when the spark is ready to let go. Since you mourn for Firefly, you need it.

On the long claws of Skywarp’s outstretched hand laid two dark brown squares with unevenly edges. Soundwave picked them up by his fingertips, somehow miraculously managed not to get hurt.

— Give the second to Skyjack, — Thundercracker advised, coming closer. — He needn’t to see this.

— We should drink to good rebirth for Firefly, — Skywarp pulled from his sub-space a long and narrow flask, the contents of which were dimly glowing an acid-pink tinge, and opened the dark matte cover by a sharp movement. His claw was trembling noticeably, and bright splashes hit his cockpit, attracting Soundwave’s glance. The liquid was so thick that it didn’t even flow down.

«I still have to download data from the server and get you out of here», — Soundwave stepped over the outstretched legs of one of the dead autobots and touched the massive steel box mounted on the wall behind the fallen console.

The jets took it for granted — from the piercing smell of that stuff that they were pouring into their intakes, the olfactory receptors failed, and Soundwave had to turn them off. He began to hack autobots’ codes, downloading almost all available volume of his own short-turn memory and standby Lazerbeak’s, and the background chatter of Skywarp, who became even more emotional, almost didn’t irritate. Lazerbeak’s optosensors were fixing the flashes of jets’ lenses and the glow of the gradually empty flask; winged dark silhouettes, sitting comfortably on small death frames, almost lost in the darkness.

— … Firefly led Vos to greatness… — Skywarp repeated the same thought already the fifth. — Skyjack won’t manage without him. With broken spark…

Where did they find greatness? Yes, Vos became the force that couldn’t be ignored, but Soundwave wouldn’t call this greatness. But he noticed to analyze the forecasts for the future later more carefully. Now, when Soundwave was in charge of all the jets in Megatron's army, any bits of information could be important.

The damned autobots learned from their mistakes, inventing new ways to improve protection, and the slightest sloppiness threatened with activation of self-destruction. Files of memory, not the whole ship, of course, but also these files in theory could increase the chances of a quick and easy victory, it meant that millions, if not billions of lives, depended on Soundwave’s abilities. Most of which, by the way, were helping the autobots’ side in one way or another.

Time eluded with frightening speed — a sure sign that there was a really interesting task. His servos were tired of being in one position, but Soundwave didn’t want to be distracted. If he didn’t cope now, the next autobots’ cipher could be even more difficult.


	4. 1.4

— I can’t talk to you right now, — Skyjack said wearily, and Soundwave froze halfway, feeling how small concrete shards creep moved under his weight.

Either seriously injured jets were few, or they were removed from the streets long ago, but the gray road covered with gray dirt looked almost ordinary. During the flight over the ruins — it seemed, forever ago — Soundwave hadn’t paid much attention to what had been happening below. He, like many other jets with whom he hadn’t wanted to crash in the air, had been hurrying to the collapsed ship…

Soundwave sent the package of data on non-activated rockets on Apex's nose, checked the schedule of lectures at the Academy and opened the portal to one of its buildings. Skyjack had already distracted, snarling at the jets, who were pulling away large fragments. The piece of Firefly wasn’t going anywhere.

In the spacious corridors of the Academy there was a ringing, alarming silence, Lazerbeak was catching energy signatures somewhere outside the walls, but the classroom was empty. Lamps crackled overhead barely audible, and even with the compensators turned on at full power, it seemed that Soundwave’s steps were roaring loudly throughout the level.

By habit, which worked faster than his mind, Soundwave opened one of the doors remotely and slipped into the narrow spare ladder, muffling all the signals normally emanating from any live mecha, and switched to secondary cooling. Another unfamiliar triad went by, using the internal communication. Soundwave leant against the cold wall with scratched glyphs forming obscene curses at a certain Tailpipe and covered the lenses under the mask, waiting until the corridor cleared. It would be simpler to teleport directly to the personal compartment of One-winged, who lived in the Academy. Simpler — but hardly polite, and then, Soundwave felt an irrational wish to bring his own emotions and thoughts in order. It was unlikely that five or ten kliks would be enough for it, of course, and especially nothing could eliminate the situation, which was pressing on his spark with unbearable weight. But the coolness of the wall behind him was better than nothing, and fear receded gradually, giving way to an objective look at the changed circumstances. After almost ten quartexes that had passed since the historical cycle of joining Vos to decepticons’ army, autobots had finally recognized it as a serious danger. So serious that they had risked sacrificing five ships.

They would try again.

The city was buzzing with panic and fury, and only Unicron knew what would happen in the next cycles. Soundwave needed to know this also, but his processors were overheating by simulating possible outcomes. He had been doing everything he had been able to do, and this wasn’t enough. Ten quartexes he had been maneuvering between Megatron and jets, showing extreme tactfulness, and xenophobia, arrogance and self-confidence of both sides had been regularly spilling onto his brain module.

Vos hadn’t so weighty reasons to break the agreement until the current cycle. But why had they called Soundwave at the last moment?

Had they… got perplexed?

In any case, the jets weren’t the kind of mecha who could endure even a hint of their own weakness, and, without a doubt, Megatron would be guilty of everything, because he had taken their ships. And Soundwave, who had convinced Firefly that it had been necessary. Considering that Firefly never used popular love…

The same white walls, illuminated by the even light of white lamps, as though were trying to crush Soundwave; he understood that this was an illusion caused by an unusual emptiness in the corridors, but he accelerated his pace, following Lazerbeak. His spark twitched anxiously.

«I'm sorry for waiting», — sent Soundwave instead of greeting.

— I didn’t expect you today at all. We didn’t close the Academy for a long time…

The streets between the educational buildings seemed to be extinct behind the wide window of a richly yellow shade, — sensitive Lazerbeak’s sensors were hearing the noise from the refectory below the neighboring dormitory, but there were no shadows behind the multicolored translucent windows of other buildings. One-winged pulled from the cabinet a standard portion of the processed energon, pushed it to Soundwave through a long table, surprisingly practically free of parts, tools and wire cuttings. Energon was by the way, because the connection to the Apex’s databases almost emptied his batteries.

Nodding gratefully, Soundwave took the mask off and placed it on the edge of the table, enjoying the cool and slightly electrified liquid. The world could go crazy and deceive all expectations, but at least one mecha worried about his former student invariably. It was nice to know that someone was happy to see him just like that, not hoping to get anything in return.

— Better take it away to the vault, it's open to you, — One-winged waved toward the tall cabinets that occupied almost the entire free space of his workshop.

When Soundwave turned around, there was a flexible, spiny cybercat on the table. But wild cybercats didn’t have such long tails dotted with thorns, and such thin and sharp fangs, more like the tips of claws cut off from some jet. Four legs, bending at unimaginable angles at once in three — and maybe more — joints, were treading on the rough surface of the table gently, and the scarlet lens over the grinning mouth was watching with guarded curiosity.

Soundwave had carefully studied completely approved specifications and diagrams of his new droid a few decacycles ago, and as far as he could judge… but no videos could convey the deadly grace embodied in the metal. His new assistant was beautiful.

— Ravage, — Soundwave squeaked, trying to pronounce the unusual name with the most accessible tenderness. His dynamic was cracking, hiding the sounds, and the name sounded not so clearly — but the cybercat fell on the front paws, slightly lifting the left and waving the tail. On a thin, swinging tip, sharp antennas appeared: the part coincided with the plugs that were in Soundwave’s manipulators, part, as he remembered, were intended for more specific tasks. — My good Ravage. Come to me.

She was slinking slowly, flickering with her rounded lens, and her unpainted body gleamed with a silvery-steel alloy sheathing. The height of table was set for One-winged’s growth, and Ravage’s tail with a lot of protrusions flickered at the level of his optics — and her teeth almost taught Soundwave’s neck, which wasn’t protected by the wings of Lazerbeak.

— You’re beautiful, — he whispered, watching her facets moving right in front of his faceplate, and his hands reached out to stroke her flexible back, which consisted of dozens of shifting plates.


	5. 2.1

The unnaturally curved waist of Tankor lying on the floor was stand out, but his electromagnetic field indicated a stable state of stasis. Megatron was heavily ventilating, calming down gradually, and adjusted his right arm by his left wrist. Sheathing was badly scratched with sharp jet’s claws, but the energon didn’t drip any more, covering the cuts on Megatron’s forearm with the weakly luminescent blue film.

The fifth air commander, proposed by Vos, stared at the high ceiling of the headquarters by unseeing lenses, and Soundwave connected to the video surveillance system remotely, pumping out records of the last clicks. Well, at least Megatron was smart enough to block the door in time. Skyjack hadn’t been contacted for eight cycles, and Soundwave had been corresponding only with One-winged — and with a grateful Skywarp, whose teleport had been successfully repaired. So that the situation in Vos could only be guessed. The need to select a new air commander, who would be able to work with Megatron, could hardly have emerged at a more inopportune moment; but the leakage of information that he really thinks about the «unprocessed winged, self-styled elite», threatened much worse consequences.

— You can look later how I've punched this idiot, — Megatron growled, and Soundwave turned the screen off hastily, stopping to show the strips of the processes of downloading and scanning the offline enclosure. — They can only scratch! He fixated on the preventive defense of Vos, as if their city can be useful to someone! Autobots probed their defense and won’t try any more, I start to suspect that they didn’t want to destroy Vos, only to achieve that our forces grouped on the Tagan heights and came under attack… or weakened the front lines at least! How can they not understand that it's pointless to keep ships next to Vos now?!

«Vos' prosperity has a greater significance for its inhabitants than the outcome of the war», — answered Soundwave.

— I swear, when we win, I'll raise the ship and destroy their damned city, — muttered Megatron wearily, coming closer. — It's impossible to deal with them, it's beyond the strength of any intelligent being!

«I’ll provide data on possible candidates for the role of air commander in the next groons».

— No candidates. You’ll be our air commander.

Soundwave lifted his dark mask up. Megatron's lenses turned into narrow scarlet slits, and a tightly compressed mouth without a hint of a smile confirmed that this time it wouldn’t be enough to remind of the number of duties that lay on the head of the decepticons intelligence.

«We’ve already discussed this. No», — even if the jets obey this decision, he hadn’t been studying any disciplines directly related to the military case. He didn’t know how to lead. He didn’t want.

A couple of kliks Megatron was looking at him, lowering the head and as if trying to examine his lenses behind the opaque screen. Any of decepticons would freeze in horror under this gaze of their Lord. Anyone — except Soundwave and, maybe, some jets from Vos.

— Forget it, — Megatron hissed finally, turning away and starting to walk about the headquarters again; The hall, occupying almost the entire upper level of the low building of the Kaon administration, seemed too small immediately — not so much because of the size of his frame, but because of the trail of his electromagnetic field stretching behind, unstable and causing an instinctive desire to get away. — Just find someone who doesn’t suffer from claustrophobia, Tankor annoyed me by his eternal desire to discuss everything in open spaces. And call Shockwave, finally!

Scrolling the video from the surveillance camera, Soundwave understood that it was really necessary. And all this time he saw a crooked Megatron’s grin — elusively reminiscent of those cycles, when they both hadn’t imagined that they would one day be forced to make decisions on which the fate of the whole planet depended.

Shockwave appeared immediately — and passed by Soundwave, as if he was an empty place. His spark had habitually shuddered from fleeting pain, and his faceplate had brought a servo spasm, spreading from the right angle of his mouth. Well, even if his mask and his activated radiation shielding didn’t conceal any manifestation of emotion, it was unlikely that Shockwave could be interested in something that had nothing to do with purely practical issues. Megatron had been providing resources for research — but Shockwave was expected no benefit or harm from Soundwave.

— The object should abandon the position of air commander himself, while maintaining the conviction that the exit of Vos from the coalition at the moment is unacceptable, right? It is logical to give the idea that only an object can effectively organize the protection of the city.

Megatron nodded impulsively, casually picking up the «object» from the floor, and Soundwave opened the portal to the laboratory deep under the streets of Kaon. Had it been worth to destroy the impartial Equitas and to save Shockwave from the next stages of empurata, if he reflashed himself, bringing others down to the level of «objects»? It was stupid to feel the blame — death had writed off any obligations, especially death in battle for the just cause — and yet every time, when Soundwave faced with the indifferent glance of the evenly luminous lens, he was sorry about the mecha that they hadn’t been able to save from autobots’ prison. And even more Soundwave was sorry about the mecha, who had enthusiastically talked about the mutating creatures of the Rusty Sea and genetically modified cyberflies, potentially capable of sucking out all the fluids from their victim for a few nanokliks, plunging him into stasis.

Maybe then Shockwave had already been indifferent to whom demonstrate his achievements and talk about new ideas. And now, looking objectively at others, he came to the logical conclusion that Megatron would prove to be a more attentive, intelligent and grateful listener…

— …the degree of their aggressiveness is controlled in theory, as it is partially determined by the biochemical processes in the neurocortex, but to channel insecticons’ aggressiveness against specific representatives our species, which do not have pronounced difference on the physical level, is hardly really with means of genetics. More rational is the option of forcibly suppressing instincts that require the submission to the queen and care for it. But the psychological results of an experiment of this magnitude can’t be predicted even with fifty percent accuracy.

— And if you pay attention to cybercats? — suggested Megatron. — Soundwave, have you already shown Ravage to Shockwave?

— My Lord, if we could reflash the psyche of wild animals so easy, it would hardly make sense to create such droids, especially since the new Soundwave’s pet probably has a very narrow specialization, — Shockwave's monotone voice sounded irritated.

Ravage, who had caused Megatron's sincere enthusiasm, was a product of cybernetics, and not of biology, and such Shockwave’s reaction was expected, but for some reason Soundwave felt an irrational resentment.


End file.
